This is a little late (only about a year) but we look to get the report back from 2012 up soon.

For Israel Apartheid week, SDS hosted four different events to raise awareness of apartheid and other human rights violations in Palestine/Israel and the ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory.

Dabke Flash Mob

The first was our Dabke flash mob. We had over half a dozen dancers, and handed out over 200 fliers, using the attention that our flash-mob got. While the University community didn’t take as much notice as they could have, we had a reporter from the Jewish Herald Voice (a local, pro-Israel, Jewish community newspaper) watching us, and the event was even covered in an Israeli publication.

We hosted a Screening of Slingshot Hip-Hop at the Sedition Bookstore. From their website, the film is about:

Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

Panel Discussion on Feminism Under Occupation

We filled up our room and had a very enlightening discussion on Women and Feminism under the Occupation ( and Apartheid )

Viva Palestina Concert

We hosted a concert featuring Palestinian musicians Sabreena Da Witch, two members of P.R. the Palestinian Rapperz (AKA the Palestinian Resistaance) and our member and local spoken work and a Hip-Hop artist Kamil Khan. We had a good turnout of between 50 and 80 people with many passers by at Lynn Euson Park and were able to get the message out through music.

Inspired by the movement to Occupy Wall Street in New York and the wave of similar occupations around the country, SDS will be joining the rest of the radical Houston community this Thursday (Oct. 6 2011) for Occupy Houston.

The march will be at 9am, but the occupation will last at least the whole day.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that SDS will be having a preliminary meeting. We want to see what you guys are most interested in working on this semester!

WHEN: Thursday September 1st, 5 pm
WHERE: UC top floor, red couches

This is not our regular meeting time. If you can’t make it to this, please email sdsuhtx@gmail.com and let us know what time works better for you. Then we will decide on a time that is most convenient for everyone. So no excuses!! lol

Students from new US Campaign member group theUniversity of Houston Students for a Democratic Societyhave joined with other Houston activists to campaign for Houston-based Pacifica Radio station KPFT to endorse the Palestinian-led campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS).

Students from new US Campaign member group the University of Houston Students for a Democratic Societyhave joined with other Houston activists to campaign for Houston-based Pacifica Radio station KPFT to endorse the Palestinian-led campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS).

An ad-hoc KPFT BDS Committee of station listeners and members originally formed in response to KPFT’s giving air-time to “Voice of Peace,” a show promoting Israel historically produced by the Israeli Government. KPFT is a listener-supported radio station with a mission to promote peace and social justice. Airing this programming was a clear violation of the BDS call. The ad-hoc committee of concerned individuals sees BDS as “the fullest action to address the current situation and prevent pro-colonial propaganda in the future.”

The committee put together this petition– All are encouraged to sign!!

He will be blogging about the experience here on our blog. Below is some of the video taken on the trip.

Tour of Nablus Palestine
Students, Faculty and Community members from the West Bank city of Nablus gave a tour of the old city, including the cemetery, to a North American Delegation in June of 2011.

Eitan Bronstein of Zochrot: Learning the Nakba as a condition for peace and reconciliationPart 2 | The Right of Return is our chance for Peace
Zochrot is an Israeli organization that raises awareness about the Nakba (“catastrophe” of 1948) primarily within Jewish Israeli communities. They lead tours to destroyed and depopulated Palestinian villages and support Palestinian refugees to symbolically reclaim their land by placing signs with the villages’ original names. Zochrot is one of the only Israeli organizations to actively support the Palestinian right of return.

Omar Barghouti Speaking about BDS to a delegation in RamallahPart 2 | Part 3
On June 29th 2011 Omar Barghouti met with a delegation from the United States and Spoke about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.

July 8th 2011 Demonstration in Bi’lin against the wall
From the July 8th Demonstration against the Seperation wall. We marched from the village, past where the old wall was recently removed to the wall of the settlement of Modi’in. Member of the Popular Committee in Bi’lin addresses international activists. This is the second week in which the wall had been removed (http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=398774) based on a 2007 court decision on the wall.

Shireen Al-Araj of the Al-Walaja Popular Committee Against the Wall

On July 1st 2011, Shireen Al-Araj of the Popular Committee Against the Wall spoke with a delegation from the USA about the struggle against the apartheid wall and enclosure of their village of 2,300 people.

The village of al-Walaja sits between Beit Jala and Jerusalem next to the settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo, both of which have been built on historic al-Walaja land. Recently, Israel has started to construct a portion of its separation wall on al-Walaja’s land. The wall will completely surround the village leaving only one entrance to be controlled by an Israeli military checkpoint.